Taking A Vote

Bob and Dolores Hope's Palm Springs  home - one of three - is for sale.  It's the house that looks like either a UFO or a gigantic mushroom, depending on who is doing the looking.  We've seen it often during visits to Palm Springs and I say "mushroom."  The architect said it was supposed to look like a volcano.  (Shrug)  All I can tell you is that it is one of the more unusual houses out there. 

It is huge -- 23,300 sq. ft. and unseen from below  is a 6,000 sq. ft. skylight.  A copper roof covers the house and its vast overhangs for shade in the burning desert.  I don't think the skylight provides much shade inside the house, but maybe it's over the indoor pool.  There's an outdoor pool, too, along with a pond, a tennis court and a putting green.

The story I got was the Hopes never really lived in it; it was their "entertaining" house.  They preferred life down in the flats of Palm Springs, in a small simple, house next door to the house they bought for one of their children. 

The "musroom" sits on 4.65 acres with a 360 degree view of the Coachella Valley.  There are six bedrooms with 10 baths and three half-baths.

I wonder if it will go the way of the Annenburg estate and become a tourist attraction.  The Annenburgs "Sunnylands", by the way, gets $35 per person for a guided tour of their house.  And to keep out the riffraff, tickets are sold on the 1st and 15th of the month exclusively.  Don't just show up and expect to get in.

Ah, but you were interested in the Hope house.  Dig out the loose change from the couch and be prepared to pay $50 million  -- for a mushroom!